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The Spanish parishioner who made international headlines for her poorly executed repair job on a valuable religious painting has died at the age of 94.

Cecilia Giménez, a resident of the town of Borja in northern Spain, became a global sensation thirteen years ago after she undertook to repaint a 100-year-old fresco titled Ecce Homo located in her local church.

Giménez's restoration effort spread across the internet and was dubbed "Monkey Christ", largely due to the altered depiction of Christ's head bearing a resemblance to a hairy monkey.

Local Announcement and Homage

The 94-year-old's passing was confirmed by the town's mayor, Eduardo Arilla, in a social media post, where he described her as a "great enthusiast of painting from a very early age".

"Rest in peace Cecilia, we will always remember you," Arilla wrote.

Arilla also paid tribute to Giménez's "now-legendary restoration of Ecce Homo" in August 2012, which "because of the poor state of conservation it was in, Cecilia, with the best intentions, chose to apply new paint over the original".

The Artwork's History and the Fateful Intervention

The Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man" in Latin) by nineteenth-century artist Elias Garcia Martinez had been held for more than a century in the Santuario de la Misericordia close to Zaragoza.

In 2012, Giménez, who was 81 years old, stated that church members had "traditionally fixed everything here", and that she had received permission from the local priest to do the work.

She also noted that anybody who came into the Church would have seen she was applying paint to the original artwork.

An Unexpected Tourist Boom

The aftermath of the repaint job led to the creation of the "Ecce Mono" internet phenomenon and transformed the once quiet town of Borja rapidly turn into a significant visitor attraction.

The town, which had in the past seen only five thousand visitors per year, attracted over 40,000 tourists by 2013, and managed to raise over €50,000 for charity from the attention.

Today, officials estimate that between 15,000 and 20,000 tourists travel to Borja each year to view the famous painting, which is now protected by a pane of glass.

Later Life and Community Support

Following the wave of criticism, backed by the townspeople and others globally, Giménez went on to hold an art exhibition featuring 28 of her personal works.

She was commended by Borja's mayor for her kind-hearted nature and years of dedication to the church.

Ultimately, what began as a well-intentioned but flawed act of restoration created an improbable cultural icon and provided unprecedented tourist revenue to a humble Spanish town.